Wells Fargo Bank was our bank for over 5 years for both business and personal use. We decided we were going to sell some Great Dane puppies. We ran an ad on a website called 57dogs.com. The persons that contacted us about a puppy sent us a counterfeit check to pay for the puppy and the shipper. The check was deposited on 6/14/05. A money order was then received from another person from that same web site on 6/16 and that money order also turned out to be counterfeit.in the meantime, Wells Fargo had scanned the check when it was deposited and checked my ID before finishing the deposit of the check.
On 6/17 they froze our bank accounts at their bank without notifying us. We did not know there was a problem until my hubby goes to the bank to get cash out and the debit/atm card won't work. He goes inside and they tell him then that the accounts are frozen. They had not only frozen the personal account the check had been deposited into, they froze my business accounts too! The law says they have to clear a check within 24 hrs. I had waited until after 24 hrs was up before money was forwarded to the shipper for the puppy. The money order, the second item, was received on 6/16.6/17 everything was frozen. So today, 6/21, I go to the bank where I had opened the bank account and took a copy of all the records of the transaction, emails, phone calls, etc. So they can see that I am not the crook here. I am just an innocent person that wound up scammed and getting a counterfeit check.instead, they act like I was part of the scam!
So I had to file a report with the Sheriff's dept. And will then file reports with the bank, the AZ attorney general, the US Secret Service, the FBI, and the US Treasury dept. These are all places that the bank will not even pursue the check to, they tell me. They also will not give me a copy of the counterfeit check so I can use it for my reports to all these agencies but will tell me it was bad. Their excuse is that it might be used to make another counterfeit check. Geez! So in the meantime, all our funds at that bank are frozen.
I then also read up on the internet last night about counterfeit checks and these scams on high dollar items, like is written about on bankersonline.com and where the bankers learn from each other and talk about stuff like this. The bank personnel get all this training on how to see counterfeit checks but they cannot be relied on to see one when I do a deposit! I am not educated in all this fraud stuff and I am labeled the criminal here! And what is this with Check 21 if they cannot tell right away if a check is good or not? All this technology and the bank still cannot tell if a check is good or not.
I bought myself a counterfeit money marking pen to see if the money I get from now on is even real. Can't trust even money any more. They told me to use Paypal or Western Union to receive money if it is not cash given directly to me. Wells Fargo wants to close my bank accounts including the business account but will leave open the cards and student loan. So they can give me a credit card but don't want me to have a checking account??!!! Doesn't make any sense. So in the mean time, I get to pursue this by myself and the bank gets to hold our money, probably permanently.
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